quaintance with Johnson, and their correspendence had been carried on clandestinely. I had a long talk with Mary in the evening, and learned of her indefatigable exertions to clear my character, in spite of the fact that for a long time she had neither assistance nor encouragement from anybody. She had employed a detective to work up the case on the theory which she had held from the first-that it was purely a case of mistaken identity.

Finally, a man known as "Bob"- evidently the writer of the letter signed "B," asking Johnson for money-called upon Mary, and offered to place her in possession of all the facts for a sum of money, which was immediately forthcoming. A full investigation by the detective fully corroborated "Bob's" statements.

Johnson had killed his man from motives of revenge, having had business troubles with him in Portland, Oregon, and the

name of the murdered man was Morrison.

As soon as the tide of my fortune turned, the current went with a rush. A few days before my first arrest I had purchased some Comstock mining stocks, which during my sojourn in San Quentin had so appreciated in value that I found upward of sixty thousand dollars awaiting my order at the broker's firm of Crowley & Goodman, they having been honest enough to keep it intact.

So we fixed the day for the wedding, and Mary, who had always looked so plain to me a few years before, now seemed the loveliest

of brides.

Just before the ceremony, Helen, who had not left her bed since the day of Johnson's suicide, sent for both of us; and the meeting which I had instinctively shrunk from was now no longer to be avoided.

As we entered she lay propped up on the pillows, pale and beautiful, and did not even lift her eyes as Mary and I approached her. Of all the strange scenes I had passed through, this seemed the most painful and embarrassing. She joined our hands with her thin fingers.

with a

"Mr. Marston, I must ask your forgiveness for my lack of faith in you. I have been sorely punished for it. Take Mary, sister's blessing-such as it is. She is a true and noble woman, which I am not, and more deserving of you than I ever could have been."

Releasing our hands she looked up for the first time. As our eyes met she sent a search ing glance into mine, and with a stifled, bitter cry she sank back, with the name of "Harry" upon her lips.

The family hastened to her with restora tives, and as quiet was absolutely enjoiner by the physician, we withdrew, and did no deem it best to again visit her before startin on our wedding journey.

The ceremony was quietly performed i the presence of the family, and we took th overland train for the East, to spend o honeymoon in New York, Mary's aunt thro ing one of her immense shoes after us i luck.

Helen, after our departure, slowly rect ered her health, and soon doubtless believ that she had not seen Johnson after t when I last stood by her bedside. S finally married a wealthy sea-captain, and the present writing is sailing somewhere the tropics. Mary has proved the wife of wives, and as I contemplate my household, of which she is the guiding sp I look upon my short stay in San Que with more satisfaction than regret.

Sam Decis

THE world has witnessed the formation on this continent in a single generation of antic private fortunes, in a society in ich neither slavery nor peasant labor has isted accumulation. These enormous gregates of wealth have been the legitite products of the industrial forces of a Satinental state in a period of unexampled elopment. They have been consistent h perfect individual freedom and prond peace. Great family estates, corrending in magnitude, have been acquired he past in other countries, but they have n acquired in the main through rapine conquest. It is the peculiarity of the unes of America that they have been t up through industrial enterprise, under stem of the most perfect internal free of competition, and have been consistwith the most extensive individual activand with the greatest security of propyet experienced by human society. are accompanied by innumerable lesser nes, which, in any other period of the 1, would have been considered immense eir individual size.

ese accumulations of wealth have been in the last third of a century, and such Deen the rapidity of their development the thought of the time as to their signce has not kept pace with them. No ite theory has yet been formed and statto their relation to the material, politiocial, and moral interests of society. c thought upon the subject is yet chawhile society itself is uncertain whether te a hostile attitude towards such forand look upon great wealth and the for such wealth with disfavor. The ct, and even the moral sentiment of untry, have been carried away by the r of this wealth, and have yielded, in a re, that ascendancy which belongs to alone. In this state of things definite founded upon the most just reason

and accordant with the most sound moral principles, are needed, that the moral sentiment and the thought of the times may assume their ascendancy and assert their prerogative as the organizers of the opinions and the directors of the conduct of society.

The questions to be discussed and determined in attaining this end are many. They relate to the influence of these fortunes upon the enterprise and the industrial activity of our country; the probabil ty of their continued existence in the hands of succeeding generations, and of the production of future fortunes of similar magnitude; the use of such wealth by its possessors, and its effect upon them and their successors; the function that wealth should subserve in society; the character that it does at present develop and which it ought to develop in its possessors; and finally, the present and prospective influence of such fortunes upon the morals of society, the purity of politics, and the regular working of our institutions. Of these questions, the first three only will be discussed in this article: the relation of such wealth to the enterprise and the industrial activity of society; the probability of the continuance of the present fortunes unimpaired to successive generations; and the probability of the production of similar fortunes in the future.

Has the material well being of society been promoted or retarded by the formation of these fortunes? Have they stimulated, directly or indirectly, the industrial activity of the present day? Had all fields of industry been occupied by the enterprises in which these fortunes were made, to the exclusion of other individuals, smaller enterprises and smaller capital, they would in their making have operated prejudicially to the material welfare of our country. Great wealth would have been accumulated by individuals, but the multitude of men would have been left in comparative indigence. Great enterprises

would have existed, but enterprises in smaller spheres and with smaller capitals would have been repressed by reason of want of opportunity. The condition of the mass of our population would have been rendered worse in proportion to the growth of these fortunes. At the time of the later Punic wars, when the greater part of Italy had been incorporated into the dominions of the city of Rome, the lands of Italy were occupied by multitudes of small farmers, the owners in fee of the lands they tilled. No great private fortunes had come into existence. At that time, however, the general cultivation of large tracts of land by slave holders, within Italy and without Rome, commenced. With these great proprietors and their slave labor, the small farmers who cultivated land by their own labor and that of hired employees could not compete. The taxes imposed to meet the war debts of the Roman Republic rested with crushing weight upon such small landholders, and the duty of military service, from which slaves were exempt, subjected these free citizens to losses of time and crops unknown to the great slave-holding proprietors. Indebtedness overwhelmed them. Their lands passed almost en masse into the hands of their creditors, and from them to these large employers of slave laborers. Large tracts of land cultivated by slaves took the place of the multitudes of small farms, cultivated by their owners and with free labor, and large capital took the place of small capital. These large cultivators built up huge fortunes, whose expenditure contributed to the brilliancy of the imperial city. But these huge fortunes, and the enterprises in which they were made, excluded minor enterprises and capital, and prevented the profitable industrial activity of the mass of freemen. The lands were monopolized by large proprietors for slave tillage, and there were no other sources of gain through industry, for manufactures did not exist, and commerce was exceedingly limited. As a consequence, the mass of freemen became miserably poor, and formed the mob of the city, or entered into the employ of the aristocratic rich as civil and military retainers.

Such, however, has not been the case with the great fortunes of to-day. The enterpris es in which they were accumulated, except where they have been gained through stock gambling operations, have opened immense and almost unlimited fields of enterprise for the employment of other men and of other capital. From the railroads, the public in every part of the United States has received incalcuable advantage. Whatever grievances the public may have against transportation companies, whether on the ground of inequitable fares and freight, or corrupt infiuence in politics, the fact is indisputable that the resulting extension and improvement of means of communication have enabled the formation of thousands of fortunes, small and large, in mercantile pursuits, in agric!ture, in manufacture, and in mining, in vast regions which would otherwise be given over still to the wilderness. It has opened to multitudes of individuals everywhere avenues to means, comfort, and affluence. Every man has participated in the benefits resulting from these great enterprises. The laborer for the earnings of a day can get easy arc comfortable passage for from fifty to one hun dred miles. If labor fields in one quartero the continent are overstocked, he can with speed and comparative cheapness transpor himself to more favorable localities. A cen tury ago, wealth only had all the climate and all the industrial fields of the world choose from. Now, these enterprises hav placed labor and small means upon an equ footing. The tens of thousands of men from Germany, England, and our Eastern State who have seen the barriers of continent mountain chains, and oceans overcome these enterprises, and have been enabled erect homes and acquire fortunes in West, have participated in a greater bene than that which has fallen to the originato of these great works. The same is true other enterprises in the fields of manufactu and commerce. Great fortunes have be made by those who designed and accon plished them, yet the greater share of benefit has accrued to the people of our tion in the markets for their production

and in the unexampled multiplication of the comforts and luxuries of life, and the diminution of the cost of their production and he cost of transportation to the consumers in he remotest regions of the continent. The great fortunes accumulated by those who coneived and executed these enterprises have een incidental only. While they are at the moment the most striking phenomena atending them, they are yet but minor and emporary phenomena, and are thrown into significance by the aggregate advantages ccruing to the multitude of citizens who nd old fields of enterprise made more profable and new fields opened up, properties hanced, and labor fields extended to meet by probable supply. These benefits resultg to the public generally are not so conicuous, because they are diffused among e masses of our population. Each indijual enjoys a varying share, and each suceding generation will enjoy in perpetuity e same benefit.

These great fortunes, then, in their accuilation, have not excluded the prosperous ivity of other men and of small capital. e enterprises in which they were made duced a greater advantage to society, and hore real benefit. This is no ground for titude to the projectors of these great ks, for they have received ample comsation in enormous affluence and in ver, while in many cases their means and ver have been employed too selfishly and graspingly to entitle them to admiration ratitude.

While these fortunes have been consistent the amplest industrial activity and prosty of all individuals, society has not de1 any appreciable material advantage the existence or expenditure of this th. Had it been engaged in prosecuting uccess great enterprises of general adage to which other wealth was inadee, then, indeed, the resulting benefit d have been incalculable. But these : fortunes are the results only of the enises whose benefit society now enjoys. e enterprises were the product of preng capital, and the result of the native

energy of our citizens and the resources of our country. Other wealth, distributed in much smaller fortunes among multitudes of citizens, is now taking up the work of industry, and is amply adequate and will be chiefly instrumental in producing the great industrial achievements of the future. Those huge fortunes of the present are now, and will be hereafter, mainly employed in luxurious living and in extravagant display. The expenditure of wealth in such manner is of little advantage to society. It occasions the distribution of a certain fund among laborers and capitalists engaged in production, but the products of labor thus purchased are consumed by a few, and no equivalent remains to individuals or to society. A million dollars employed in purchasing labor and materials for the construction of a great system of irrigation leaves society, upon the application of that labor and materials, still in possession of a vast property of more than equivalent value. The system of irrigation is worth to its private owners the million expended, with interest upon the amount. To the multitudes of land-owners, the fertility of whose lands is increased one-fourth or one-half by the water supply, that system as a public work is worth one, two, or many millions. The original million is converted into another form of property of equivalent or greater value, and society is richer by the added value to thousands of farms. Had that million, however, been expended in extravagant living, or in the construction of palatial residences, the products of that amount of labor would have been consumed without leaving a material result behind, or invested in huge structures of no value but for the residence of a few and for display. In the course of a few years those structures would have gone to decay and the former wealth would have disappeared, leaving no vestige to tell of its former existence. ciety in such case would be poorer by the million consumed without return, and by the added wealth which that million invested in productive enterprises might have produced.

So

Wealth is not necessarily misspent by being expended unproductively. It may be con